A developing story in local political news this week is State Rep Ed Rynders’ (R-Leesburg) proposal to allow the citizens of Albany and Dougherty County the ability to vote on whether or not the two entities should be merged.

I am a former resident of Dougherty County who lived just outside the city limits of Albany on Gillionville Road. In fact, it was due to this location that I actually went to church with State Rep Carol Fullerton for a while (before she was a State Rep), and am still a member at that church. (I actually go to another church now, just haven’t walked down the aisle to join it yet.)

Albany Mayor Willie Adams and Dougherty County Commission Chairman Jeff Sinyard oppose consolidation, for obvious reasons: one of the two would probably lose their influence, if not their job completely.
So why should the two people who have the most to lose be allowed to block something that would actually benefit the citizens of the area?

Why not allow the citizens to vote and decide for themselves either way?

Honestly, I have no preference either way here, and would never have commented on it had it actually gotten to the citizens for a vote.

My beef here is that you have local politicians too afraid of losing their own power to do what is right for the citizens they are supposed to represent.

Put the issue to the voters. Mayor Adams and Chairman Sinyard would be perfectly within their rights as private citizens to work in their off-time to defeat the measure, and I know several others that would be working to oppose them.

But put the issue to the voters and let them decide for themselves. Don’t allow two politicians too afraid of losing their power to dictate what the citizenry actually wants.

Again, I honestly don’t care either way what happens.

I simply feel the voters should be able to dictate the decision, not two individuals.

3 Responses

I feel pretty much the same way. Being a resident of Dougherty County still, I’d very much like to have a say in consolidation. The PEOPLE are the ones who have the greatest stake in this, not the politicians.

It’s funny how those who want to block this are those in power who stand to possibly lose that power, and their sole counter is “we weren’t consulted”. I plan on working towards making this happen myself.